


Where We're Going We Don't Need Annie

by cause_it_rhymes



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Back to the Future References, Bromance to Romance, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Making Out, Movie Reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29764107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cause_it_rhymes/pseuds/cause_it_rhymes
Summary: When Abed is on a tight schedule to finish filming his Back to the Future remake but Annie gets sick, him and Troy need to find someone to step in to be the Jennifer to Troy's Marty.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 12
Kudos: 38





	Where We're Going We Don't Need Annie

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so I just wanted to put a trigger warning here that vomiting is mentioned, and while it's extremely brief I did just want to put that out there.
> 
> Also I don't know when this would take place, but definitely after Troy comes back from AC school, so do with that info what you will.

Troy bounded into the kitchen, already wearing the black and white checked shirt and black suspenders he and Abed had bought online a couple of weeks ago, clipping the suspenders to his jeans as he walked. He practically skipped past where Abed was sitting at the counter, eating Lucky Charms, to get to the cabinet and pour a bowl for himself. When he made to sit down next to Abed, he was grinning at him, still unable to contain his obvious excitement at continuously getting to play a character he’d always adored.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Abed said in what he hoped was a teasing tone, raising his eyebrows at the fact that Troy hadn’t even separated the marshmallows from the cereal and was just eating the whole thing normally. 

“Dude, good mood doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Troy giggled into his spoon in between mouthfuls, “The past few weeks of filming have been so awesome! Playing a black Marty McFly in a Back to the Future remake has been a dream of mine ever since I was little and I tried to break the top of my scooter off to turn it into a skateboard.” 

Abed nodded in understanding. “When I was a kid I ran around parking lots yelling ‘They found me. I don’t know how, but they found me. Run for it Marty!’ at random strangers until my dad realized what I was doing and grounded me for a week.” The corners of his mouth turned upward at the memory as he picked out some marshmallows from his bowl and ate them.

Troy frowned a bit, his good mood temporarily dimmed. “Why aren’t you playing a character if you’re such a big fan of the franchise? You could’ve at least been George or Biff or even Strickland if you didn’t want a big part.”

But Abed waved him off before his concern could worsen. “I’d much rather direct and film than actually be in it. I know sometimes I act in my remakes, but being able to shoot one of my favorite movies the way I want to is the real dream come true for me.”

Troy nodded and his smile returned. “All right, buddy, as long as you’re happy with it. Speaking of the other characters, you did tell Annie we were starting at 9, right? It’s not like her to wake up after us when something’s scheduled for the morning.” Both of them turned to look at Annie’s closed bedroom door in concern, before Abed got up to check it out, Troy following close behind.

Abed knocked twice on the door and put his ear up to it, waiting for a sign that Annie was at least alive, and preferably awake. What he didn’t expect, though, was Death to greet him and say, in the most hoarse and deep voice it could muster, “Come in.” Abed frowned at Troy, who had a similarly confused look on his face, before shrugging and opening the door. What met them was the image of Annie, curled up around about a million sheets and blankets, clutching them for dear life. Her nose was red, her eyes were puffy, and she had a bucket- an actual  _ bucket, _ that girl comes prepared- perched on the bed next to her, tilting a little back and forth as she turned her head to look at them. Overall, Abed figured it wasn’t really a stretch that he referred to her as Death before; he figured if Death were a person, they might look a little like this.

Annie groaned when Troy flicked on the bedroom light, shielding her eyes and taking deep breaths through her mouth. Abed whipped his head to Troy, eyes wide, and saw his own concern mirrored on Troy’s face. He turned back to Annie and carefully said, “Annie? Are you sick?”

Annie made her signature noise of contempt, a small “uh!”, before seemingly regretting it as she devolved into coughs. “I think sick is an understatement,” she all but growled, making Troy and Abed step back in fear for a second before feeling guilty and moving a little closer to their dying friend. “Guys, I don’t want you in here for too long, because-” she took a minute to cough and collect herself before continuing, “I have the flu, and I don’t want to give it to you guys because taking care of you two is not how I want to spend my recovery. No offense,” she tacked on at the end, but it was hard to take offense from someone who was currently pale as a ghost and squinting at them through watery eyes.

Troy turned the lights off before answering her. “If that’s what you want, then we won’t bother you,” he said as the two of them started backing away to the door. “But before we go, is there anything you need? Water, soup, sunglasses?” When she said “all of the above” he nodded, dragging Abed back out into the living room and heading to make soup as Abed closed the door.

“What are we going to do about the movie?” Abed asked, walking over to the kitchen where Troy was opening a can and pulling out a microwavable container. “We can’t cancel today’s shoot, it’s the last possible day of filming because I need the next few days for editing before I submit it for class. We were only supposed to shoot the one scene, though, so maybe if we can just find someone else to play Jennifer, we’ll be able to film the scene from the living room while still being able to keep an eye on Annie in the next room.”

Troy started the microwave, then turned to look at Abed, brows furrowed. “How can we shoot the scene from the living room? I thought it was the ending scene? The one where they’re outside and then Doc pulls up with the DeLorean from the future?” He leaned back against the counter, rolling his sleeves higher up on his wrists as the microwave behind him whirred quietly.

Abed sat down at the kitchen table, folding his hands in front of him and watching the timer for the soup go down. “I was going to use a green screen anyway, since we already filmed the bits that are outside and we can just use those shots as a backdrop. It would make the cutaways easier in editing. Plus, under the current circumstances, it seems like our only option.”

Troy nodded, now filling up a glass of water and putting it on the counter. “That makes sense, and I don’t like the idea of leaving Annie alone in this apartment, even if she doesn’t want us going into her room.” The microwave dinged and he moved to take out the soup, smoke and the smell of chicken noodle filtering into the kitchen when he opened the door. “But who are we going to get to play Jennifer on such short notice?”

“I’m sure we’ll find someone,” Abed reassured him as the two of them carried the meal and a pair of sunglasses to Annie’s room. “We have female friends who will do anything for us, so I’m not worried.”

* * * * * 

Abed should have been worried. Troy sighed and laid his head on the kitchen table as Abed put down the phone with a frown on his face. “Vicki says no,” he resigned, slumping back in his chair dejectedly and staring at the table. “That was every girl we have the number of.” Apparently, dropping everything to come immediately to an apartment that contained a very sick person just to act out a few minutes of a film was a higher ask than he’d considered.

“What the hell are we gonna do?” Troy asked, picking up his head and looking over at the green screen and tripod they had already set up a little while ago, when their hopes were still high. “You said we can’t cancel, and the only people we have available to act here are you and me.” He and Abed whipped their heads at the same time, widening their eyes at each other as smiles formed on their faces.

“I can’t believe we made six phone calls before realizing the most obvious solution,” Abed shook his head bitterly at the waste of time. “I’ve played women in our movies before and we know we work well together, it was right in front of our faces the whole time.”

Troy was two steps ahead, already rummaging through the costume bucket on the floor of the living room to find the Jennifer wig and outfit. “This is gonna be so fun,” he remarked, pulling out the sleeveless jacket that was either blue or purple, they still couldn’t really tell. “But how are you gonna be in the scene and film it at the same time?”

Abed started making his way towards the blanket fort where his equipment was. “Well we only need to film it from two angles, so I’ll set up another tripod so we can get both shots at the same time. We might need to move the green screen a bit, so let me figure that out and change and then we’ll be all set.” Troy nodded and tossed him the remainder of the costume, letting Abed dip into his bedroom to find the camera and get dressed.

* * * * *

“Okay, so where are we picking up from in the scene?” Troy asked once Abed was finished adjusting the green screen that hung on their back wall. They had needed to take a break for a little bit to get Annie more food and water, but now everything was back on track and running smoothly.

Abed checked the cameras and fixed his wig a little before turning to answer. “So we’ll start after you open the garage door, then you walk slowly over to the truck and I come up behind you. I say my line, you turn, we say some more lines. The important thing to remember is that when I say ‘Is everything alright?’, you look behind you and pretend to see your parents in the doorway of your house. Then we kiss-” Troy bit his lip nervously at that part and Abed’s heartbeat picked up a bit, but he ignored it- “but jump away because we’ll be pretending the Doc just pulled up with a flash of light in the driveway. Got it?” Troy had been nodding along during the directions and looked ready to go.

Abed walked onto the bit of green screen laying on the floor where Troy was standing and imagined where the entrance to the garage would be. He grabbed Troy by the wrists and moved him to his mark, trying not to notice the faint blush creeping onto Troy’s cheeks at the contact. It was just warm in the room, that was all. Maybe Troy would need to fix the air conditioning unit when they were done.

Once everything was all set up, Abed ran over to Camera 1, counted Troy down, and hit record. Troy was a perfect Marty McFly in Abed’s professional opinion- his sense of adventure and comedic timing combined with his ability to be suave and good-natured was just what the character needed. Abed walked over to his mark as Troy pretended to check out the black truck, twirling the car keys in his hand smoothly. Abed adjusted his leggings and then walked in behind Troy, a small smile playing on his face.

“How bout a ride, mister?”

Troy whipped his head around, giving Abed a fond look as he said “Jennifer” and smiled, rushing to his side. “Oh, are you a sight for sore eyes.” He gently grabbed Abed’s shoulders, and for some reason the touch felt hot, burning through Abed’s jacket and collared shirt. Goddamn air conditioning. “Let me look at you,” Troy breathed, scanning Abed’s face and gently rubbing circles in his shoulders with his thumbs.

“Marty, you’re acting like you haven't seen me in a week.”

“I haven’t,” Troy grabbed one of Abed’s hands and laced their fingers together as Abed moved his other hand up to brush a thumb across Troy’s forehead, locking their eyes. Troy wrapped an arm around Abed’s waist as Abed continued running his fingers through his hair.

“You okay? Is everything alright?” Abed asked as he started playing with the hair at the nape of Troy’s neck, and Troy remembered to look behind him at his imaginary family staring through the front door. He turned back around and looked Abed in the eyes, chuckling a little.

“Yeah. Everything is great.”

They both slowly leaned in as Abed grabbed Troy’s neck and Troy pulled him in closer by the waist. Abed tried to tell his heart to  _ shut up _ , and that this was nothing more than acting, but his body didn’t listen. So instead of just kissing Troy’s top lip, like the way he knew movie kisses worked, he gently pressed both of their lips together, craning his neck to get a better angle at Troy’s mouth. Abed was moving his lips in an attempt to deepen the kiss and was surprised to realize Troy was reciprocating, catching right up to Abed’s speed and then going past it. Which was probably why Troy didn’t even flinch when Abed swiped his tongue across Troy’s lips, and instead opened his mouth to let Abed in. The kiss was getting more heated, with their tongues grazing the roofs of their mouths and their teeth starting to knock together. Abed bit down on Troy’s bottom lip and Troy’s breath hitched, wrapping his arms even tighter around Abed’s waist as he dove back into his mouth, seemingly more passionate than before, if that was possible. Abed pulled away, panting, but before Troy could question it, he bit at Troy’s neck, causing him to actually  _ moan _ . Abed was reveling in the fact that he had never made anyone moan before, much less Troy, when suddenly they could both hear the faint sound of vomiting from the other side of the wall.

Troy jumped back with wide, glossy eyes and red, bitten lips, and Abed accidentally caught himself staring before realizing what had happened. He spun around and cautiously opened the door to Annie’s room, trying to stop his brain from buzzing and his heart from whirring. Annie was sitting cross-legged on the floor, tears streaming down her face and the bucket in her lap. Abed immediately dropped from whatever high he was on and rushed to her side, rubbing her back and holding her hair as Troy slowly stepped into the room.

“Troy,” he started, taken aback by how raspy and hoarse his voice came out, “can you get Annie some water? And a damp washcloth?” Troy nodded and Annie cried a little more, hopefully out of gratitude this time. 

* * * * *

Once Annie was tucked safely in bed with a clean bucket on the floor and a wet washcloth on her forehead, Troy and Abed made their way back into the living room. Abed double checked that Troy had turned the cameras off when they had gone to help Annie, and began work cleaning up the green screen. When he noticed he was doing it alone, he looked up at Troy, who was standing a few feet away, hands in his pockets and eyes on the ground.

Abed tilted his head and looked Troy up and down, feeling a little pride in the way his lips were still bright and shiny. He didn’t want to pretend he didn’t know what Troy was thinking, so he cut to the chase. “Is this about us kissing?” he asked, feeling his heart rate pick up at the mere mention of what had happened earlier.

Troy nodded and finally looked up into Abed’s eyes. “I was just thinking, you know, since we didn’t actually jump away when we were supposed to…” He bit his lip gently, and Abed felt his face flush a little. Troy seemed to notice and suppressed a smile. “I just figured, maybe we should redo the take? Since I think it got messed up and everything.”

“I actually don’t think it’s necessary, since we already shot the scene after that when Doc shows up, and if I just cut out the middle part of the kiss, we still jumped away from each other,” Abed explained, and Troy looked back down at the floor, seemingly disappointed. “But,” he continued, standing up and walking over to Troy, tilting Troy’s chin up with his fingers so they were looking at each other again. “if you want to redo the scene without the cameras on, maybe a few times or for the rest of our lives or whatever, I’m perfectly content with that.”

Troy lit up and chuckled. “Thank God,” he breathed, relieved, as he wrapped his arms around Abed’s neck and pulled him in, “I thought you were just an amazing actor.”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> If you couldn't tell, I have zero experience with filming a movie, so the part with the green screen and cutaways was definitely wrong, but oh well.  
> I hope you liked this and lmk if you did/didn't, any notes are appreciated <3


End file.
